get away
Britishverb
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to make an escape; leave
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to make a start
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to steal and escape (with money, goods, etc)
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to do (something wrong, illegal, etc) without being discovered or punished or with only a minor punishment
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interjection
noun
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the act of escaping, esp by criminals
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a start or acceleration
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(modifier) used for escaping
a getaway car
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Break free, escape, as in The suspect ran down the street and got away , or I wanted to come but couldn't get away from the office . [c. 1300] A variant is get away from it all , meaning “to depart and leave one's surroundings or problems or work behind.” For example, Joe is taking a few days off—he needs to get away from it all .
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Start out or leave quickly, as in The greyhounds got away from the starting gate , or I thought I had the answer but it got away from me .
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Go, move off. For example, Get away from my desk! or Get away—I don't want you near that hot stove . [Late 1700s] Also see get away with .
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Reynolds added it helped him to "get away from day-to-day life," and acted as "a day out".
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Plenty of U.S. investors buy emerging-markets funds precisely to get away from U.S. tech stocks.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026
Gillison decided to attend Duke University partly to get away from Ohio winters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
"Why should we be so scrupulous in declaring everything, if he were to be able to get away with this?" one said to me.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
I told Red everything that had happened when Frederick and Bruno took me outside, all about my name, and how I knew what it was and my plan to get away.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
